GRASSES OF ROLLING PINE UPLANDS. 113 



and Pensacola for the chief points of export, and the}^ are also the 

 source of the resinous products which find their market at Mobile. 

 The depletion of their timber wealth with no heed given to their 

 maintenance, and their destruction by the barbarous methods prac- 

 ticed in the extraction of their resinous product, together with the 

 ravages of the fires which one season after another destroy the seedlings 

 and the youngest timber, and with the injuries inflicted by herds of 

 domestic animals which roam through these forests, not only are 

 exhausting their present resources, but will inevitably and within a 

 comparatively short time result in their extermination, notwithstand- 

 ing the fact that in no other region within the wide range of distribu- 

 tion of the long-leaf pine are the conditions more favorable for the 

 spontaneous reproduction of this most valuable timber tree. 



Xeropkile herhaceom plant associations. — Thanks to the abundant 

 and evenly distributed rainfall, the floor of these open pine forests is 

 covered with a carpet of grasses and other herbs, mostly perennials, 

 which, under the mild climate of this zone, retains its verdure for the 

 greatest part of the year. The grasses vastly predominate in the 

 number of individuals, and in the diversity of forms they are scarcely 

 exceeded by the species of the pea and composite families. The great 

 bulk of the grasses consists of types of a Southern distribution, the 

 majority being confined to the Louisianian area. But a small number 

 reach the Carolinian area, and those only along the seacoast. The 

 following are noteworthy species: 



Andropogon iener. Gymnopogon brevifoUus. 



Paspalum setaceum. Chrysopogon nutans linnaeanus. 



Paspalum floridanum .^ Chrysopogon elliottii. 



Paspalum cUiatlfoUum } Paspalum plicatulum. 



Panicum filiforme.^ Paspalum bifidum {P. racemulosum 'iiiutt) . 



Panicum lanuginosum.^ Paspalum dasyphyllum. 



Panicum pauciflorum .^ Paspalum difforme. 



Panicum sphaerocarpon.^ Anthenantia villosa. 



Panicum jnibescens. Panicum angustifolium. 



Panicum angustifolium. Panicum neuranthum. 



Aristida purpurascens. Panicum arenicola. 



Andropogon argyraeus. Panicum nashianum. 



Danihonia sericea. Aristida simplicifoUa. 



Gymnopogon ambiguus. Aristida stricta. 



Of the above species Gyinnopogon hrevifolius is a typical species of 

 the Louisianian area, characteristic of dry pine barrens from North 

 Carolina to eastern Texas, and Panicwni oieuranthum extends to the 

 West Indies. Ai'istida stricta., or wire-grass, is extremely abundant 

 in the coast region of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and the coun- 

 ties of Alabama east of the Perdido River, along the Florida State 

 line, known as the ''wire-grass counties," where on the loose white 

 Ozark sand it almost alone forms the grassy covering. 



^ Carolinian area and northward. 

 15894 8 



